What size is a passport photo in India?

By the PdfDady team · Updated 12 November 2026 · 7 min read

Passport Photo MakerCrop a photo to passport size and print copies on one sheet. Free, in your browser — files aren't uploaded.

If you are applying at a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or a Post Office PSK in India, you don't need to bring a photo at all. Passport Seva's instruction booklet says a photograph is "NOT REQUIRED" for applications submitted there, because you are photographed at the counter.

Where a photo is needed, Passport Seva's guideline asks for a colour photo of 630 × 810 pixels with a white background and the face filling 80–85% of the frame. On paper, the size given is 4.5 cm high × 3.5 cm wide. Both are the same shape, so one well-taken photo covers either.

The rest of this guide covers who actually needs a photo, the full list of rules, and how to crop and print one without a studio.

Who needs to bring or upload a photo

Three groups, going by Passport Seva's own documents:

Applications at other collection centres. The booklet lists District Passport Cells, Speed Post Centres and Citizen Service Centres. Here you paste one colour photo, 4.5 cm × 3.5 cm, in the box on the form.
Small children. Passport Seva publishes a separate guideline for photographs of minors below 4 years of age: colour, 45 mm × 35 mm, white background, face 80–85% of the photo. If your appointment instructions ask you to carry a photo for a young child, this is the size.
Applicants outside India. Indian embassies and consulates each publish their own photo page, and they are not identical. The Consulate General in Auckland lists the 630 × 810 pixel guideline. The Embassy in Buenos Aires asks for 2 × 2 inch photos with the face covering 70 to 80%. Go by the page of the mission you are applying to, not a general rule.

For everyone else in India, the PSK camera does the job. It still helps to know the rules below, because the same ones apply to the photo taken at the counter: no glasses glare, hair off the eyes, mouth closed.

The specifications in one table

These come from Passport Seva's "Guidelines for ICAO Compliant Photographs for Passport Applications" and its application form instruction booklet.

Item	What the guideline says
Digital size	630 × 810 pixels, in colour
Printed size	4.5 cm × 3.5 cm (height × width)
Background	White
Face	Close-up of head and top of shoulders, face 80–85% of the photo
Head position	Centred, not tilted, full head from top of hair to chin
Eyes	Open and clearly visible, no hair across them, no red-eye
Expression	Natural, mouth closed
Glasses	Take them off to avoid reflections
Head covering	Only for religious reasons, with chin to forehead and both edges of the face visible
Lighting	Uniform, no shadows on the face or background, no flash reflections
Distance	About 1.5 metres from the camera
Editing	"Unaltered by computer software"

A quick check on the numbers: 630 ÷ 810 and 35 ÷ 45 both come to 0.778. So the upload size and the print size are the same 7:9 rectangle, and a photo cropped for one fits the other.

The booklet adds a few points for printed photos. The dress should be in a dark colour, the print should be on good quality photo paper, a "photograph in computer print will not be accepted", and you should not sign the photo.

Taking the photo at home

A phone camera is good enough if you set the scene up properly. Most rejected photos fail on background and shadows, not on the camera.

Stand about half a metre in front of a plain white wall. Standing right against it throws a shadow behind your head.
Face a window in daylight so the light falls evenly on both sides of your face. Avoid a tube light directly overhead, which shadows the eyes.
Ask someone to take the photo from about 1.5 metres away with the back camera, held at your eye level. Selfies distort the face because the lens is too close.
Take off your glasses, keep your hair away from your eyes, look straight into the lens and keep your mouth closed.
Leave space above your head and include the top of your shoulders. You will crop it tighter later.

Wear something dark. A white shirt against a white wall makes your shoulders disappear.

One thing not to do: don't run the photo through a background remover or a beauty filter. The guideline says the photo should be unaltered by software, and cut-out edges around hair are easy to spot. Cropping and resizing are fine. Changing what the photo shows is not.

Cropping to the right size

For a printed photo, use our Passport Photo Maker. Add the photo, pick the 35 × 45 mm preset, and move the photo under the crop frame. The frame is locked to the right shape, and a centre line and head-height band help you place the face. Then choose a sheet (A4 or 4 × 6 inch photo paper), the number of copies and whether you want thin cut lines, and download the PDF.

For an upload that must be exactly 630 × 810 pixels, the Image Resizer is the better fit. Choose Pixels, unlock Keep proportions, enter 630 wide and 810 high, and use Crop & position to frame your head and shoulders. The photo is cropped to that shape, never stretched, and the tool shows the final pixel size and KB before you download.

Be clear about what these tools do. They crop, resize and lay out copies. They do not remove the background, detect your face, fix lighting or check whether the photo meets any rule. That judgement is yours, using the table above, and finally the passport office's.

Printing several on one sheet

The booklet rules out a "computer print", and it wants photo paper with continuous-tone quality. In practice that means a home inkjet on plain A4 is the wrong way to make the final photo. Take the PDF to a photo lab or studio and ask for a print on photo paper.

Two settings matter at the shop:

Print at Actual size or 100% scale. If the operator leaves "Fit to page" on, every photo shrinks or grows by a few percent and no longer measures 35 × 45 mm.
Match the paper. If you made a 4 × 6 inch sheet, it has to be printed on 4 × 6 inch paper. An A4 sheet goes on A4.

After printing, measure one photo with a ruler before cutting the lot. It should be 3.5 cm wide and 4.5 cm high.

If you need photos of different people on one page, say the whole family's, that is a different layout. Our Multiple Photos on A4 tool arranges different photos in a grid, but it does not size them to exact millimetres. For exact passport size, make one sheet per person in Passport Photo Maker. There is more on both methods in our guide to printing multiple photos on one A4 sheet.

Questions people ask

Is the Indian passport photo 2 × 2 inch or 35 × 45 mm?

Passport Seva's documents for applications in India give 4.5 cm × 3.5 cm on paper and 630 × 810 pixels digitally. The 2 × 2 inch (51 × 51 mm) size appears on some Indian mission websites abroad, and on visa and OCI pages. If you are applying outside India, check your mission's page before printing.

Do I need to carry photos to my PSK appointment?

For an adult applying at a PSK or POPSK, the instruction booklet says no photograph is required. Check your own appointment instructions, especially for a young child.

Can I wear glasses or smile?

The guideline says glasses should be taken off to avoid reflections, the expression should look natural and the mouth should not be open. A relaxed, closed-mouth face is the safe choice.

Can I use the same photo for exam forms?

The framing rules are similar, but exam portals have their own pixel and KB limits. See our guide to photo and signature for online application forms.

Will a photo made this way definitely be accepted?

Nobody but the passport office can promise that. PdfDady is not affiliated with any government body. Follow the official guideline, and if a photo is refused, ask what was wrong and retake it.

Sources

Try it now